


How do I Love Thee?

by Bruceweezy



Category: Joe/Mika
Genre: F/M, Jika, Joe/Mika - Freeform, Love, Love Poems, Morning Joe, elizabeth barrett browning - Freeform, how do I love thee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 13:20:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11314242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruceweezy/pseuds/Bruceweezy
Summary: Please let me know what you think of this!





	How do I Love Thee?

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think of this!

Joe/Mika (Jika) fanfic: How do I Love Thee?

It was a bright, early morning in New Canaan, Connecticut. Joe stood at his bedroom window, looking out at the cookie cutter houses in his neighborhood as he sipped a cup of coffee. He turned away and faced his king-sized bed, watching a very peaceful Mika sleep under his sheets. 

He sipped his coffee once more before placing it on the bedside table and putting a hand on the small of Mika's back.   
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," he said softly. 

Mika began to stir a bit, but then was fast asleep again.   
"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,"

Mika didn't move. 

Joe removed his hand from her back and laid back against the headboard, sitting up and grabbing his coffee cup, continuing his speech of his favorite poem to read to Mika by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

"My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight." Joe sipped his coffee, and Mika turned over. 

"I thought I told you not to recite that to me first thing in the morning." Mika said groggily with half-closed eyelids. She had rolled over and was giving him her death glare, even though she was still rather sleepy. 

"Good morning to you, Mika mouse!" Joe retorted with a smile, and taking another sip of coffee. Mika rolled her eyes and turned back over as if to go to sleep. 

"Why are you awake anyway?" She asked, not even bothering to turn & look at him. 

"Had that dream again..." Joe said, reaching for his glasses off the side table. Mika rolled back over and glared at him again. 

"So you have to wake me up at the crack of dawn too?" She asked, frustrated at her lack of being able to go back to sleep. Joe simply turned to her and smiled a weak smile, thinking about how cute she looked when she was mad. Mika knew she wasn't really mad at him, and knee she couldn't stay mad at him with that smile he did. She rolled her eyes, rolled back over, and sat up with her bare back to him. "Didn't I tell you not to call me that name, either?" 

Mika stood up, let the sheet fall to the floor, and went into the bathroom to shower. When Joe heard the water turn on, he left the bedroom and went into his kitchen. It was a gorgeous kitchen, and it was too big for Joe to have for just himself, but he was glad Mika was with him most of the time so he wouldn't feel so lonely in that house. He grabbed a coffee mug out of the cabinet and fixed Mika some hot tea from the Keurig. While it was brewing, he stepped outside and grabbed the newspaper off the front porch and smelled the fresh morning air. He stepped back in and saw that Mika's tea was ready, so he grabbed it and the morning's paper and headed back into the bedroom. 

Mika was still in the shower, but she had left the door open because she knew Joe would find a reason to come barging in if she didn't. He simply placed the tea on the counter in the bathroom, and sat down on the bed to read his paper. Mika stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her at the chest, and her mug in hand. 

"Thanks for the tea," she said, placing the mug on the side table before heading to the closet to find an outfit to wear to work that day. 

"For the ends of Being and ideal Grace." Came Joe's reply from behind the newspaper. 

"Joe, shut up!" Mika called out from the closet. 

"I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light..." Joe started trailing off as he turned the page in his paper, peering over it every now and again to see if Mika was stepping out of the walk-in dressed or undressed. 

Mika stepped out with a pair of black slacks and a black lace bra on. She had a shirt draped over her arm and was sipping her tea. "It's bitter." She said, making a face after taking another sip. 

Joe put the paper down, looked at her with his, "seriously, Mika?!" Face before cracking a smile at her attempting to make banter this early in the morning. 

Joe picked his newspaper back up and continued to read. "I just figured you were sweet enough, Mika-boo." 

He then flinched when a pair of socks came flying at him and hit the paper instead, knocking a huge dent in it. Joe could only hid his smirk behind the paper because he knew Mika hated that nickname even more than the other one. Joe simply picked up the pair of socks and tossed it into the closet, deciding to pick it up later when he went in there again. 

He fixed his paper and continued to read as Mika put on her make-up. She paused putting on her lipstick. "Are you going to at least finish the poem before we go to work?"   
She looked at him through the vanity mirror, waiting for him to respond. 

"I love thee freely; as men strive for right, I love thee purely; as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion out to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith."

Joe could see Mika blushing in the vanity mirror as she stopped applying her foundation and listened to him quote from the side of his newspaper. He continued reciting. 

"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints--I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!" He paused a moment, got off the bed, and went over to her, standing behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gazed at her through the vanity mirror. 

"And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death." Joe squeezed Mika's shoulders. 

She had continued putting on foundation, but paused again. "Joe, that's a terrible ending for such a romantic poem!" 

Joe shrugged. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning was not exactly Shakespeare, Mika. Plus, you've never let me recite the whole poem to you, before." 

Mika rolled her eyes, knowing he was right, but still mildly annoyed. "I do appreciate the thought behind it, darling." Mika smiled at him and continued putting on her make up while he went into the closet to finally start getting ready for work. 

After putting on her pressed powder, Mika put down her make up brush and followed Joe into the closet. 

"How do I love thee?" Mika quoted as she shut the door to the closet, with both of them inside. "Let me count the ways..." she said as she strode toward Joe, who had his back facing her, but was listening intently. 

Mika traced her nails up and down his now bare back, lightly scratching him. Joe turned around and grabbed Mika firmly, and kissed her passionately. Mika grabbed on to the side of Joe's head, her hands digging in his hair, and moving back and forth from his head to his shoulders and back again. 

Joe held Mika close to him, keeping on hand on the small of her back, and the other on the back of her head, pulling her mouth closer to his, not wanting to let her get away. 

After a few moments, he released her, and she smiled up at him. 

"As much as I do love thee, Joe, we need to get ready for work." She smirked as she turned around, opened the closet door, and went to continue her make up as though nothing ever happened. 

Joe stood there, slack-jawed, aroused, and now a little flustered. He looked down, around, adjusted his glasses, and continued getting dressed, trying not to keep thinking about that moment that had forever given him a reason to think about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem.


End file.
